That ball MG mount on the Panther A and G was known as the mailbox mount as that was exactly what it looked like. When the Germans found out that the bow MG couldn't transfer far enough side to side or left to right, so they quickly went to the Ball/mailbox type on the mid A's to fix this flaw. As the early A's still had this slit type with the open and close driver vision port in the front glacis plate. That is probably the easiest way to tell an early Panther A from the mid to late run A's
Ah! German Tank! (... insert a proper Sauerkraut joke HERE ...) I also came for polycaps and Herbert didn't let me down just as the kit and the video... and the video about the kit, you know?